Left, Right and Center: Dilemmas of an Intellectual Orphan

PTH is extremely grateful to Abhinav Pandya for contributing this article. PTH does not essentially agree with every point made by the author

Abhinav Pandya

With the social media on fire, it seems that the governments have vanished, bureaucracies have become phantoms and the nations with eternal sovereignties have dwindled, and it’s all about netizens (all humans are netizens but not all netizens are humans) and their status updates. And netizens are nothing but just left, right or center.

I am an under-grad from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and a graduate from Cornell University, which are both the bastions of left-liberal political discourse. Mostly, I speak and write in English. In taste, manners, beliefs and life-style, I am everything which any religious Hindu will scoff at. My friends are from multi-cultural and multi-ethnic backgrounds. All the women I am friends with are mostly cosmopolitan socialists and feminists who dabble in intense intellectual gymnastics with Davidoff, cannabis, sex and Merlot, and they look amazingly sensual and classy with their nose-rings, kohl-lined eyes, hair-curls and pierced navel. I feel myself blessed to be in such an extraordinary company.

With this picture in front, most of the people assume or rather expect me to be, if not an ultra-leftist then at least a left-liberal, who is expected to be fuming and fretting at Modi, BJP and Republicans. However, that is not the case. I would like to put across and new domain of being, which might sound a little abstract to most of you, but I personally feel it to be the most real one.

The categories of left, right and center and their exclusiveness have never appealed to me. I prefer to call myself “spiritually sensible” which is very different from being rational, moral or empirical because a spiritual person can only be sensible, but never a moralist, idealist, rationalist or an empiricist. Being a spiritually sensible one, my epistemology is not a typical Kantian one which begins with facts and ends in reason. My epistemology transcends Kantian world and finds its fulfilment in spiritual wisdom and the truth of intuition which for me is a direct and immediate knowledge. Transcending reason and facts, emanating from the sphere of renunciation and armed with faith it treads firmly on the bedrock of the honesty of purpose.

“What it means to be spiritually sensible?”- Given the constraints of word-limit, I will not be able to describe it in its entirety and truly speaking, it is not even capable of being described in words fully as it is a spiritual experience which defies language. However, I will mention a few manifestations of this state of “being”. These manifestations are in the nature of my opinions and actions on the issues of worldly importance. Let me begin with Pakistan.

Unlike my friends in Indian left and Congress’ line of thinking, I fully accept and respect Pakistan as sovereign nation state. Like Vajpayee, I strongly believe that peaceful and prosperous Pakistan is in India’s interest and it is a great defense for India. I don’t think that separation of Bangladesh and today’s condition of Pakistan is because of some inherent flaws in Jinnah’s two-nation theory. Like all other theories, even his theory was partially true and partially false, and it is not as if he created it. He just picked it or circumstances led him to propel it in a systematic political manner. And generally theories and their proponents are quite powerless, but their sub-contractors and manipulators are immensely powerful. Hence, Jinnah is not responsible for today’s Pakistan of blasphemy, minority killings, proxy terrorist organizations and burgeoning religious extremism. It’s the people who ruled Pakistan after Jinnah, their arrogance and nasty intentions are responsible for what the nation faces today. India is not just one nation. It is an ancient civilization which has multiple nations with their diversities. The diversities and fault-lines were most pronounced between Hindus and Muslims. No matter how much we deny it but even today one visit into the interior India will reveal the hollowness of the claims of Nehru, Gandhi and the so-called idealists. And those who criticize Jinnah, do they ever think that was it possible to govern united India, Pakistan and Bangladesh?

When it is about gay rights, female emancipation, abortions, live-in relations I fully support aforesaid sections of the society in their demands and I do that in absolute sense. If it is about farmers, my heart and soul is with them and against those industrial giants who want to profit at their expense. In fact, I believe that countries like India and Pakistan need smart villages more than the smart cities and FDI, so that millions do not have to leave their pristine rural homes and migrate to urban areas where an alien culture and alien morals wait for them. When it comes to labor rights, I a pro-poor and against the unbridled capitalist development of India on the western model of MNCs, multiplexes and complex suffocating web of lifestyle where you have tensed and diseased white color workers working 12 hrs a day on their laptops and smartphones, with some time for weekend movie-popcorn sessions and almost no time for meditation or any form of spiritual elevation.

On the question of Islamic extremism and terrorism, I must state that I am totally against any kind of Islamophobia. I have my absolute sympathies for the refugees who are escaping the blood-thirsty conditions of Middle-East. And, I also believe that ISIS is just a fringe element. But, I do not support those intellectually dishonest liberals who are trying to provide and apologetic defense for the mass molestations that happened on New Year’s Eve at Cologne. I am not convinced with those pseudo-intellectuals who are denying the very presence of radicalization and extremism among the Muslims. And, I do believe that there are verses in the Quran from which the extremist elements seek justification for their violent jihad and such verses need to be revisited (just like you have such versus in other religious texts like Manusmriti or Torah or Bible) . And, I also believe that deradicalization can’t happen without engaging the religious leaders of Islam to counter the extremist narrative, and through inter-faith dialogue involving scholars and clerics of other religions, not by imposing blanket ban on Madrasas and hijab. On the question of Kashmir, unlike my left-liberal cabal, I do like to question the integrity of the separatist movement because of it being a purely Islamic separatist movement and their treatment of Kashmiri pundits.
On the question of Mumtaj Qadri, in spite of extreme opposition to what he stands for, I might not be very comfortable with the capital punishment for purely for pragmatic reasons. Mumtaz Qadri is not an individual. He is a thought, an ideology which has been assiduously cultivated and nurtured over the last four decades. Killing him will make a hero out of him and will strengthen what he stands for, in the minds of common people. What needs to be eliminated is not a man but a thought which he stands for.

With these opinions, where do I fall? Or Am I an intellectual orphan or am I even an intellectual because in my pursuits of life the most important one is to get rid of the ideas and reach the silence and emptiness of mind.

Left liberals/Congis/eminent journalists and intellectuals are those who will support Kanahiya, Umar Khalid, citing FoE, for their slogans ‘Bharat ke tukde tukde’ ‘ Bharat ki Barbadi tak Jung rahegi, Inshallah ‘ but will keep mum on Kamlesh Tiwari, who is in jail since 2 months for saying something against Prophet. All these people were quite when more than 8000 cases were registered for Sedition in 2013 because their friendly secular govt. UPA was at Center but now all are shouting against the current govt for filing the sedition cases against few students from JNU. Many such examples are around for everyone to see. Actually these bunch of hypocrites are anti nationals.

Usman

One of the condition for giving the bail to Kanahiya is that he cannot indulge in anti India activities. Translation – Kanahaiya cannot join Congress and CPI

Nuree

How Sonia’s UPA Communalised India’s Education System

To hold private education institutes established by minorities and non-minorities on equal footing so that Hindus can enjoy the exact same rights that the minorities do, is a no-brainer decision but this kind of parity is anathema to the Idea of India.

SNAPSHOT
To hold private education institutes established by minorities and non-minorities on equal footing so that Hindus can enjoy the exact same rights that the minorities do, is a no-brainer decision but this kind of parity is anathema to the Idea of India.

Early 2005 was a time of joyous celebration in the Congress Party. They had just upset the BJP led NDA at the polls. Their allies had pulled off spectacular wins in their states. Sonia Gandhi was in full control of the party and government.

However, one critical problem loomed that needed urgent fixing. Strategic thinkers of the establishment realized that the principal canon of the “Idea of India” was damaged beyond recognition under BJP’s rule: the idea to have outright communal discrimination in the domain of education.

Judicial Blows To The Idea Of India

As the private education industry started booming in the country, various state governments resorted to biting off a part of the private capacity and using that to advance its social objectives. This ran into the minority issue as well as issues related to fees and cross subsidies. A number of these questions accumulated and the need to settle this once and for all was felt by everyone. The opportunity presented itself in a case called TMA Pai Society vs Union of India.

Eleven judges of the Supreme Court, the second largest bench after the 1973 Kesavanada Bharati’ thirteen judges bench, would hear the education and minority issues and settle the issues once and for all. The hope was that this large bench would not be encumbered by the earlier nine judge bench’s views in St Xaviers v Gujarat case. The 11-judge bench delivered its verdict in 2002. The split was roughly seven-four on a number of questions, but even the four dissenting judges agreed on a number of the framed questions. The most ‘shocking’ part of the judgment was the following:

Private education institutes established by minorities and non-minorities were held to be on equal footing. Hindus could enjoy the exact same rights under Sec 19-1(g) that the minorities did under Article 29/30.
This may seem like a no-brainer decision to us or to a western liberal observer but this kind of parity is anathema to the Idea of India.

Post TMA Pai, there were a number of issues related to entrance exams, capitation, and such like that caused major confusion. Another constitution bench of five judges was setup under Islamic Academy vs Karnataka to clarify. They still left some vagueness in the questions related to admissions. Then a final bench of seven judges was constituted for PA Inamdar v Maharashtra to further seal the issue. A lot of questions got answered – a lot did not. But here is what happened.

The essential parity the court accorded to minorities and Hindus in the field of education persisted. The concept of parity between Hindus and Minorities run educational institutions emerged unscathed after examination of large benches. First an 11-judge, then five-judge, then seven-judge. The final word:

In the opinion of S.B. Sinha, J, minority educational institutions do not have a higher right in terms of Article 30(1); the rights of minorities and non-minorities are equal. What is conferred by Article 30(1) of the Constitution is “certain additional protection” with the object of bringing the minorities on the same platform as that of non-minorities, so that the minorities are protected by establishing and administering educational institutions for the benefit of their own community, whether based on religion or language. It is clear that as between minority and non-minority educational institutions, the distinction made by Article 30(1) in the fundamental rights conferred by Article 19(1)(g) has been termed by the majority as “special right” while in the opinion of S.B.Sinha, J, it is not a right but an “additional protection”.
PA Inamdar V State Of Maharashtra Aug 2005
The final word in PA Inamdar came in August 2005. It was now clear beyond doubt that the principle of parity to Hindus in education had just emerged unscathed from three big constitution benches. It was settled. It was final. It was going to be the way forward for India. I realize now that the ecosystem must have been inconsolable at this. How was the Sonia-led Congress government going to restore the minority preference over these epic judgments?

The Congress govt just decided to simply change the Constitution. And thus the 104th Constitutional Amendment Bill Is born,

The Congress government worked with great urgency to move a constitutional amendment bill that would obliterate the court judgments The idea was to:

allow the state to take (to an unspecified extent) from unaided educational institutions
explicitly exempt institutions run by minorities from it
explicitly encode the exemption in Art 15(5) itself

They quickly added a new section in the Constitution of India called Article 15(5) which read:

(5) Nothing in this article or in sub-clause (g) of clause (1) of article 19 shall prevent the State from making any special provision, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of article 30.
Article 15(5) Inserted By The 93rd Amendment
The minority exemption was immediately opposed by the BJP. Unfortunately, they did not make an intellectually honest case as to why this bill was wrong. Instead, they sought to include backward among minorities in their institutions but their amendment was defeated. This was in 2005 when there was no social media. The old mainstream media had absolute control of the discourse.

The Impact On SC/STs

Since a large chunk of the top educational institutions are run by minorities – the bill hurts the Dalits more by shutting them off. For example, in Kerala, minorities run 14 of the 18 medical colleges. This is the clearest proof that the Congress party which claims to fight for Dalits will only do so when their interests do not come into conflict with Christians and to a lesser extent the Muslims. A forum of SC/ST parliamentarians seems to have raised this issue with the Prime Minister but he really wasn’t in control. This fizzled out and Dalits still dont have quotas in aided or unaided minority institutions.

In the end, on December 22, 2005, the 93rd Constitutional amendment was passed. The Constitution of India was changed. Years of effort by huge benches, dozens of lawyers, thousands of hours of arguments were obliterated. Minorities were once again restored to a preferred status when it came to the issue of education.

Validity Of The Bill

Naturally, this 93rd Amendment was challenged. While hearing the OBC quota case Ashok Kumar Thakur v Union of India, the court noted that they would not hear challenge to the 93rd amendment until the Centre passed a law.

That opportunity to test the 93rd amendment against the “Basic Structure” came in 2010 in the form of the Right to Education Act. This law imposed quotas on private educational effort while exempting those schools run by people born as minorities.

Remember that the share of 25 per cent is arbitrary – there is absolutely no protection upto 49.5 per cent. Even that is crumbling. An earlier bench hearing a challenge to the RTE Act involving Rajasthan Private Schools did not go into the constitutional question, perhaps because that was only a three-judge bench. Eventually they did constitute a five-judge bench to hear the RTE Case in 2014 involving a large number of petitioners under Pramati Educational and Cultural Society.

On May 9th, 2014, a week before Narendra Modi-led BJP swept to power on a massive mandate – the 93rd Amendment was held to be constitutional by a five–Judge bench in Pramati Educational & Cultural … vs Union Of India & Others.

While departing, the Idea of India ecosystem managed to secure its crown jewel.

Fallouts Of The 93rd Amendment

Sectarianism in education has taken deep root. Minority colleges have flourished. Even aided minority colleges are exempt from quotas that are applicable to fully unaided Hindu run colleges. The trajectory of the education scene can be best illustrated by a January 2014 judgment in Madras High Court, Federation of Catholic Faithful vs State of Tamilnadu:

In the light of the above-said judgment, even in respect of aided courses run by minority colleges, there cannot be any direction to follow the rule of communal reservation.

Raj Kamal

What’s common between JNUSU and Congress? Presidents of both bodies out on bail for serious offenses – sedition & corruption.

NEW DELHI: While condemning the recent religious conversion of Muslims in Agra by a Hindu group, Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid ended up admitting what has been being denied by the Muslim leaders and liberal commentators recently.

Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Shahi Imam, called on Muslims to fight such religious conversions through “Love Jihad” i.e. marrying Hindu women and converting them to Islam.

Shahi Imam has accepted something with outspoken honesty, which others have been dishonestly denying.

His call for Love Jihad, with the objective to increase population and strength of Muslims in India, came during the Friday prayers earlier this week, as reported by the website New Age Islam.

There is no reason to doubt the veracity of the website as it is run by a Muslim who himself is committed to propagate Islam.

Shahi Imam’s call for Love Jihad was greeted by slogans of “Allahu Akbar” by thousands of Muslims inside the mosque and outside it, the website reports.

engrich

bullshit and lie.u people are against women.by talking love jihad ,u are limiting the choice of women.only man is hindu women is shudra.women has to convert otherwise childs will be incest.there is no conversion among hindus.

The ‘intolerance’ debate has given way to ‘Student Unrest’ and ‘Youth up in Arms’ debate. From Hyderabad Central University to Jawaharlal University there is indeed unrest which finds way into television studios and newspaper columns. Promptly, almost on the cue, international liberal media has also taken fancy to the story of young people being disenchanted by the Narendra Modi Government. Rohith Vemula, a young scholar who committed suicide in HCU and Kanahiya Kumar, President of JNU who was arrested on the charges of sedition and was given interim bail yesterday are the faces of this ‘unrest’.
In India these days the real story usually is what is missed by media and 9 p.m. talking heads. As the intolerance debate, attack on ‘Christians’ debate, achieved crescendo and then sank without a trace, something similar will happen to this youth unrest debate too. Manufactured debates can only go that far. However it is important to establish few facts.
JNU, HCU and Jadavpur Student leaders brain-washed by radical leftism do not represent the entire population of youth or students of India. The silent majority are the youth who are keen to acquire a degree, ready to learn a skill and join the work force at the soonest. They are looking for jobs, sense of purpose and direction from the leaders of the nation. They want to contribute to the nation building but are not sure how. They want to turn around their lives and the lives of their families but are stuck in the rut of mediocrity of the system. Their role models aren’t Rohith Vemula and Kanahiya Kumar. Their role models are Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal, Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Pranay Chulet. Their role models are those who achieved success not because of the system but inspite of the system. It is these young, hungry, bright youth of India that Narendra Modi is failing.

Rohith Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar represent ideas that are outdated and a system that has failed for sixty-five years. The fact that our educational system is still producing Kanahiya Kumars and Umar Khalids is something we must worry about. The fact that our educational system produces students who believe in exacerbating fault lines, increasing social divisions and believe that the government of the day represents the nation is a matter of shame.
The reason that Narendra Modi is failing the youth is not because there has been crack down on JNU, but because not enough systemic measures have been taken to cleanse the educational system and rid it of ideological biases.
Narendra Modi, the man with the Midas touch, who rallied the youth behind him when he gave the call to transform India is increasingly appearing to be bogged down by the system and bureaucracy himself. The man who gave a clarion call to the youth to break the shackles, dream big and think out of the box is himself unable to break the shackles. The youth of this country wants campus politics without viciousness of political parties steeped into it. Campus politics must be about debates, discussions, ideas and solutions. Youth is not meant to be wasted at the altar of organized political activity but is meant to encourage students to think and question without the shackles of ideological burden.
The unrest in the student world is not because freedom of speech has been restricted or there is any censorship of ideas. The unrest is also not because government has suddenly starting interfering in the educational institutions. Let’s face it. Some amount of Interference has always existed and this is also our failure that for six decades we have been unable to make educational institutions completely autonomous. The unrest is also not because ideological Right and Ideological Left is jostling for space in campuses. That tug of war has always existed even though Left has enjoyed disproportionate influence.
The unrest is because for last six decades, our institutes of higher learning have become dens of mediocrity. The system has infused laziness and low expectations from our students and educators both. When higher education is highly subsidized, and students have no incentive to graduate and contribute to the work force that is when unrest spreads. There are students in JNU who continue enrolling in degree after degree merely to avail hostel facilities. Of course one is not painting the entire university with one brush but there are certainly alarming signs when students don’t graduate for a decade and continue using university campus as launch pad into active politics or merely to become a vacuous activist.

A strong Government with the mandate that Narendra Modi has, should get down to cleansing the educational system. The mindless subsidies must go, targeted scholarships to the deserving students must instead be introduced. Higher education is a privilege and not an entitlement. Those who don’t understand that and behave as if the Government owes them a Master’s degree or a PHD degree must be brought down to the realm of ordinary mortals.
The government with the historic mandate like this government has, should also ensure that radical Left that has infested our academia is not replaced by angry Right. There should be enough space created for common sense on both sides of the ideological divide to prevail. New ideas and new voices should also find way in academia to infuse new breath of life. I am not sure how much students benefit from professors who are still mourning fall of erstwhile USSR and haven’t moved on from that shock.
Education should liberate a student and not tie him to any ideological yoke. Education should also prepare a student for life and active contribution to the society. Education that teaches students to sharpen fault lines and not provide any viable and durable solutions needs to be revamped. I hope Narendra Modi takes up this challenge or he will indeed lose the youth who have very high expectations from him.

Nuree

All the liberals and prominent journos are going gaga over the speech by Kanahiya, which he gave after he was released on bail. Only if he also offers free water, electricity and WiFi, he can easily become CM of Delhi.

Nuree

Early on the morning of June 15, 2004, four Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists—Ishrat Jahan, Javed Sheikh, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana—were gunned down by the Gujarat Police in an encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. According to the Intelligence Bureau, they had been on a mission to assassinate then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

The irony, however, lies in the fact that one of India’s most successful preemptive counter-terror operations did not get the due accolades. Instead, the Gujarat government and the officers involved in the operation were hounded by critics.

For more than a decade, the anti-Modi and anti-BJP brigade—cutting across political parties, NGOs, government machinery and sections of the media—orchestrated a fierce propaganda to dub the operation as a ‘fake encounter’ ordered by Modi and then Gujarat home minister Amit Shah, who is now the BJP president.

However, all efforts of the Congress-led UPA to frame Modi and Shah failed miserably. Even the attempts to suppress Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley’s deposition before the National Investigation Agency team in 2010 that Ishrat Jahan was an LeT operative and the attempts to threaten intelligence officers with CBI probes against them did not help.

The IB’s operation had its genesis in February 2004, when the Jammu and Kashmir Police shot dead Poonch-based Lashkar operative Ehsan Illahi. Letters found on his body led the sleuths to an Ahmedabad-based lawyer. From there, the operation rolled on.

There are legitimate reasons to believe that the IB was successful in breaching the Lashkar plot and had precise inputs about when and where the terrorists would strike.

The FIR of 2004, filed by the Ahmedabad crime branch after the encounter, records that the officers knew of the imminent arrival of the suspects in a blue Tata Indica with the registration number MH02 JA4786.

In that case, would it be far-fetched to presume that the IB director, the national security adviser, the Union home minister and even the prime minister back then were aware of the threat to Modi? Would it then be unreasonable to question why these terrorists were allowed to drive into Gujarat from Maharashtra? Why were they not neutralised in Maharashtra?

Illustration: Job P.K.
It is clear now that Ishrat Jahan had not been killed in a fake encounter, as it was alleged for more than a decade by those who are still sulking at their 2014 electoral drubbing. The special investigation team, which probed the case, did not find any substantial evidence to prove the allegation.

One may also raise serious questions about the rationale behind the appointment of Justice Abhilasha Kumari in the Ishrat Jahan case. Justice Kumari is the daughter of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, a Congress veteran. One cannot be faulted for asking whether the UPA had appointed her with an ulterior motive.

Now, as Headley’s deposition that Ishrat Jahan was indeed a Lashkar operative has struck the final nail in the case, one wonders who funded and fuelled the toxic propaganda campaign against Modi for a decade.

It is time to unravel the real conspiracies. It is time to put the record straight on why the UPA regime had gone to the extent of initiating a CBI probe against the IB officers involved in the Ishrat Jahan encounter. Intelligence officers put their lives at risk on a daily basis, and nothing can be more obnoxious than humiliating them to settle political scores or to destroy a rising political force.

The Ishrat Jahan case should not be allowed to fade away from public memory. It should stand as an example of the extent to which some parties can compromise even national security for political gains. What is happening at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, and the manner in which some national parties have been backing anti-national sloganeers, is yet another example of that.

Nuree

Parrikar finds $3 bn lying forgotten in US account
New Delhi had placed the money in the Pentagon-managed account for weaponry it was buying under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme
In a disquieting comment on how the ministry of defence(MoD) manages its money, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar revealed on Friday that he discovered India was paying the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) for new weaponry, even though $3 billion which had been earlier remitted was lying in an account in Washington.

New Delhi had placed the money in the Pentagon-managed account for weaponry it was buying under theForeign Military Sales (FMS) programme. In this, the Pentagon procures equipment on behalf of foreign governments from US vendors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

“Because of ill-management, or lack of attention to this account, we had slightly less than $3 billion which is piled up in this account, which was not earning any interest. It was just lying there in the account,” Parrikar said at a press conference here. Parrikar added that he drew on this account, saving money from this year’s capital budget, which was returned to the finance ministry. “From somewhere near $3 billion, the account has come down to $1.7-1.8 billion. During last year, we must have paid nearly Rs 6,000 crore from this fund for our committed liabilities…. We have saved almost $700-800 million in foreign exchange”, he said.

He also claimed to have saved up to Rs 3,000 crore by tightening up payment norms to Indian vendors, including the defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs). He said payment had been made even to companies that failed to deliver the contracted equipment.

engrich

as per recent survey in tribune, india is second most ignorant/foolish nation in the world.first is mexico followed by brazil and peru.

…
How many people remember the Kedar Nath case, where Congress hammered a man who accused it of black marketing of sedition? Kedar Nath was a Communist in Bihar who accused Congress govt of indulging in black marketing. Congress charged him with sedition

There are people in Bangladesh who are chanting Bharat Mata ki Jai and there are people in India who were shouting Bharat tere tukde tukde honge, inshallah inshallah

dunkirk

Everything is fully explained when one recognizes that islam’s long-term goal is to exterminate non-believers (=non-muslims). So long this plain truth is ignored, boycotted, silenced over, suppresed, slandered … the fate of non-muslims is going to be very very bad.
Who will protect the non-muslims? Certainly not this arabic allah and his flatterers and beloved killer-agents.

MOhanRRRR

It’s nearly two years since ModiSarkar took charge at the centre. Though he doesn’t use these words but he follows the line “Screw it, let’s do it”. He has been busy repairing Indian economy, instrastructure and all that. Not once…. Not once I have heard him or any of his ministers talk about any discriminatory or divisive policy or action. Not once I have I seen discrimination against any religious community or caste. Yet, from the fake “Christians under attack” campaign to the current JNU ruckus the govt’s opponents have been engineering one imaginary crisis after another. To his credit Modi has stood steadfast and kept his focus on his work and that of his govt.

Even events happening in other states, like the Dadri incident or the Rohit Vemula suicide are attributed to ModiSarkar. The Commie Pigs are good at inventing words – Award Wapsi,Intolerance and such stuff to malign not only the govt but the entire Hindu community in India and abroad. Never mind all that. It all came undone with the stunning but unsurprising revelations in the Ishrat Jehan case. The story is all over that P. Chidambaram “fixed” the second affidavit on the encounter to target Narendra Modi and Amit Shah and consequently four police officers of Gujarat spent some eight years in jail. This shocked all the Agony Aunts and they ran helter-skelter trying to figure out how to defend the LIES they peddled for all these years on behalf of their Bosserina – Sonia Gandhi. There’s no doubt in any serious observer’s mind that Ishrat & Co. were assigned to attempt to kill Modi or create havoc. And over the NatHerald scam it is Sonia that is whining that the Gandhis are being targeted. Lord almighty –how do they even target the daughter in law of Indira Gandhi? Eh?

engrich

Everything is fully explained when one recognizes that islam’s long-term goal is to exterminate non-believers (=non-muslims)

things are other way around.800-1000 is quite long period.islam brought light of equality and equal justice to continent.

engrich

these slogans were shouted by rss agents.to make issue.they also hurl pakistani flag in muslim areas to incite riots.remmittance from pakistan to india is 5 billion,who is sending this huge amount.goverment should tell.why mallaya is not in jail.who looted the wealth of our banks.india ke sare bade bade chor deshbhakt aur dharmik kyon hai.dunkrik jawab do.

India has the civilizational strength and spiritual heritage to evolve a holistic vision for the feminine movement not only for India, but for all of humanity.

The dominant religious-cultural structures of Western civilization have been systematically destroying the Feminine. The reacting feminine spirit has basically aped the masculine values already entrenched in Western society. The book considered as “probably the greatest feminist work of the 20th century” is Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949). The emancipated woman in this perspective was one who sought professional autonomy and financial independence, who avoided marriage and probably children as well. By the end of the century, however, feminist critics of the work were finding the “emancipation” portrayed inThe Second Sex “a bleak prospect”—that the emancipated woman sounded just like that familiar 19th century self-made man. (Margaret Walters quoted by Mary Evans in Introducing Contemporary Feminist Thought, 2013).

Though self-mutilating, these Western “feminist” perspectives get exported to the so-called “developing countries”, particularly to ancient living Asiatic cultures. And on cue, the institutionally strong Left in India apes the dominant Western feminist framework in India, which results in confusion and chaos.

Of course, Indian womanhood faces myriad problems. Colonial impoverishment of Indian society, man’s inherent urge to dominate woman, alien invasions—all these have resulted in the dethroning of women in Indian society from the place she deserves in a just society. But, from Vedic women seers to the valiant women who fought colonialism, Indian women have a long heritage to look upon with pride and draw inspiration from.

Indian womanhood can be rightly proud that India alone is the land where women seers revealed eternal truths to humanity. Yet the greatness and independence enjoyed by Vedic women gradually underwent a degradation that was due to both external and internal factors. Buddhism formulated that idea that liberation or enlightenment cannot be had in the body of the female. Even though women were admitted in the Sangha of the Sakyamuni, they were strictly secondary to the male monks who were the heads of the institutions. Whosever compiled the Manu Smriti, took forward the Buddhist idea. So, despite the fact that there are eulogizing passages to womanhood, on the whole, the Manu Smriti was not favourably disposed towards women—there was no gender equality. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that Manu Smriti is only a smriti or a law book and not a revealed or experienced Truth as in the case of the Vedas or the Upanishads.

Even Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar concedes that Hindu women in pre-Manu Vedic society enjoyed “a very high position for women in any part of the world”. It is interesting that all the examples that Ambedkar gives to prove this are Vedic rather than Buddhist, like the testimony of Panini’s Ashtadhyai, Patanjali’s Maha Bhashya, and “the story of public disputation between Janaka and Sulbha, between Yajnavalkya and Gargi, between Yajnavalkya and Maitrei and between Shankaracharya and Vidyadhari”.

Maitrei rejects material compensation from her husband and demands her right to be a companion in his pursuit of truth. In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, one can prefigure an approach that declares the worth of a woman as a Self and not defined by worldly relations which during patriarchy became more and more male-centric: “Not, verily, for love of husband is the husband dear, but for love of the Self is the husband dear! Not, verily, for love of wife is the wife dear, but for love of the Self is the wife dear!”

The text Yoga-Vasishta presents how, when king Sikhidhvaha rejected learning the wisdom of the Self from his wife because of his gender bias, queen Cudala disguised herself as a Brahmin ascetic and taught him the self-knowledge. Then the “Brahmin” tested the equilibrium of the king’s mind through radical gender role-based illusions. The “Brahmin” said he would become a woman at night and the king should marry him, so that he can be satisfy “his” sexual needs as a woman in the night. Then this “wife” also creates a pleasure realm in which “Brahmin”-turned-“wife” makes love to a handsome youth with the knowledge that the king would watch. Then the “wife” blames it on the nature of woman. The king remains composed. At this juncture, the “Brahmin” reveals that “he” is none other than the king’s wife in real life. The bold characterization of gender roles in the story is proof enough of the Hindu attitude towards women in the context of knowledge.

The epics also portray women as strongly and fiercely independent and intelligent. Sita and Draupadi take their own decisions, based on their love and their values. Though often Sita has been portrayed by patriarchy and western observers of Hinduism as a meek woman obedient to her husband, the portrayal one sees in Valmiki is completely different. She rejects her husband’s order to stay at Ayodhya and decides to come to the forest. She does not hesitate to chide Rama when he vows to kill the Rakshasas. When in Lanka, it is her power that protects Hanuman from the fire lit on his tail. After Ravana is killed, when Hanuman wants to kill the demonic women who tormented Sita, she commands him not to harm them. Ultimately, it is she who decides to enter the fire to prove herself. And when at the end of the epic, Rama wants her to perform the test of fire before the public, she rejects Rama’s request and enters the womb of Mother Earth.

In the Bhagavat Gita, there is one verse which is often cited as proof of the scriptural downgrading of women in Hinduism. Verse 9:32 clubs women with merchants, labourers and others of “inferior origin”. However, this particular grouping only shows the prevalent social prejudice as the verse itself negates their inferiority by making clear their right for liberation. However, in absolute terms Gita, (10:34) speaks of fame, prosperity, speech, memory, intelligence, consistency and patience as feminine divine qualities.

Indian culture nurtured the environment in which the worship of the Feminine Divine evolved in its full splendour, colour and variety.

With the arrival of Islam, Indian women lost what was left of their independence. Abduction of women during war and even during peaceful times in order to humiliate Hindus and convert them was widespread. The purdah system was introduced. Hindu women practiced mass self-immolation to avoid a fate worse than death.

Of course, there have been notable exceptions like Meera. Again, wherever they were free from Islamic dominance, Hindu women chose their husbands even across community barriers and wielded a strong hand in administration and fought against alien invaders.

Rani Durgavati (1524-1564) is an excellent example of how Indian women lived in areas unconquered by alien views of inferiority of women. Born in the family of the Chandal dynasty who were known for their bravery as well as artistic accomplishments like the building of the temples of Khajuraho, she chose as her husband Dalpatshah, the eldest son of king Sangramshah of the Gond tribal community. Her husband died accidentally and she did not commit sati. Rather, she became an able administrator and soon the prosperity of her kingdom attracted Islamic invasion. She fought bravely in the battlefield and became a martyr on June 26, 1564, at the age of 40.

European colonizers discovered Indian women rulers as strong and fierce in protecting the freedom of their territories. Abbakka, (1525-1570) queen of Ullal, a small principality in South Karnataka, made strategic alliances across South India and fought the Portuguese, inflicting humiliating defeats upon them several times.

Rani Chennama (1778-1829) is another example. Guided by the Savira Samsthan Math Swami of Veera Saiva tradition, she fought the British and inflicted a heavy defeat on them in the first battle of Kittur in October 1824. She arrested the British officers and yet she not only did not execute them but even returned them to the British because of the traditional Indian magnanimity. However, the treacherous enemy attacked again, with reinforcements, and on December 5, 1824, the Kittur fort fell. Chennama languished for almost five years in jail and became a martyr on February 2, 1829.

Yet the slavery of women was also becoming a social reality in India. Swami Vivekananda rose as a social messiah to rejuvenate a religion and a culture, at a very critical time, when women were a marginalized section in society—exploited, abused, despised. The Hindu response to this degradation effected by the forces of history is phenomenal. It is not just an accident that every savant of the Hindu renaissance we see in the history of modern India has spoken so powerfully for the cause of women.

Vivekananda’s clarion call to the women of India was taken forward by Sister Nivedita. Born Margaret Elizabeth Noble, Sister Nivedita (1867-1911), became an epicenter of diverse activities of national resurgence in India. She contributed immensely to the development of an Indic school of understanding art and culture, which later sprouted as a great movement and institution through Rabindranath Tagore. She worked with Indian revolutionaries like Sri Aurobindo. She played an active down-to-earth role when plague ravaged Bengal.

In the face of opposition of a stagnant society that had forgotten its core values, Nivedita fought for the right of education to the girl child. It was her stern advice to Tamil poet Bharathi that he could not speak about India’s freedom while keeping his own wife confined to the walls of his house, that Bharathi became the voice of women’s liberation in Tamil Nadu which continues to galvanize generations.

Nivedita’s love for creating an institution of science was taken up by Jagadish Chandra Bose. Alas! When the dream realized into the wonderful structure of the Bose Institute of Science in 1917, Nivedita had already passed away.

Yet her memory became so sacred to the great pioneering scientist of India that he immortalized the ideal Indian womanhood in the Bose Institute of Science. Writes Bose: “Entering the Institute, the visitor finds to his left the lotus fountain with a bas-relief of a Woman Carrying Light to the Temple. Without her, no light can be kindled in the sanctuary. She is the true light-bearer and no plaything of man.”

Sarada Devi, who showered grace and love on saint and sinner alike, also became and continues to inspire the Indic movement for women’s empowerment. Swami Vivekananda regarded her as the ideal for women in the modern age. It is definitely not a coincidence that Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy, one of the pioneering women medical doctors of India, who fought for the uplift of women and the ending of the abuse of women through certain distorted customs—should also be a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother Sarada, the wife of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa.

India is also one country that continues to produce women mystics for ages and millennia. Today, seers like Mata Amritanandamayi share a dais with woman scientists like Jane Goodall—and voice their concern against the exploitation of women and nature.

Some of the most important paradigm shifts in science in the last half century have been pioneered by women scientists. Rachel Carson brought to the awareness of global community the danger of bio-magnification of pesticides. Her work Silent Spring essentially launched the global ecological movement.

Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock put an end to genetic determinism. Till the discoveries of McClintock, the genes were visualized on chromosomes as particulate, static beads on a string, but after her painstaking research for years, a more dynamic picture emerged. There are genetic “controlling elements” which do not have any static fixed positions on chromosomes. In 1951, when she presented her theory, she was ridiculed, and even called “crazy”. But in the 1970s, new discoveries vindicated her theory, and in 1983, she received the Nobel.

Lynn Margulis postulated the Gaia hypothesis which makes the pale blue dot in which we live as more a living organism in itself than just an inorganic spaceship lost in the cosmic wilderness. Goodall changed the arrogant perception that self awareness and tool making are uniquely human when she discovered them in chimpanzees. Each of these discoveries that have forced us to look at ourselves and the Universe in a more holistic way has come from women scientists. This speaks of how harmonized development of male and female components of humanity can make the third planet from the sun a better place.

India too has women pathfinders. Janaki Ammal (1897-1984) was from the Theeya community which was once considered very persecuted. A world-class researcher in cytogenetics and phytogeography, she was co-author with world famous geneticist Cyril Darlington on the atlas of the cultivated plants of the world. That a woman scientist from India which was then colonized, rose to this level shows her mettle. She pioneered ethno-botany in India.

“India’s position (and that of other developing countries viz. Brazil, Turkey etc) with respect to women’s participation in science careers is better than those of more developed countries like Japan, Germany, United States and United Kingdom…It is also found that the nuclear family which is the common characteristic of developed countries put strain on the woman scientist who lacks support structure in the domestic sphere. In comparison, the traditional extended family, still a common practice in developing countries, provides significant support for women scientists.” This is by a Jawaharlal Nehru University scholar Ms Arpita Subhash. (Etzkowitz and Kemelgor, Gender Inequality in Science: A Universal Condition?, Minerva, Vol 39, No.2)

India has again and again demonstrated that she has the strength and resources. It is up to the women pathfinders to understand this blessing of Indic culture to the empowerment and liberation of women and hence the whole of humanity. We have the civilizational strength and spiritual heritage to evolve a holistic vision for the Feminine movement not only for India, not only for the so-called developing countries but for humanity—a vision of the Feminine, which is not conflict-oriented but harmony-oriented.

This is not just an option before Indian women; it is a duty.

dunkirk

this is because of the muslim population growth in India.

engrich

bjp and congress both are controlledl by brhmns.

dunkirk

engrich’s brain and mind are controlled by arab fascism-imperialism. His brain is not washed – it is polluted.
Actually guys like engrich need brainwashing in order to get rid of the arab fascism in it.
–
About other muslims too the same thing can be said.

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning… he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Any ‘Friend of Israel’ is a friend of the Devil.

engrich

u kill ur women in every possible way.ur women are lazy.dont give birth to choldren.enjoy life.fifty kilometer from delhi lacs of peasant are dying and commuting suicides we are spending crores and crores on sree sree programm.